Daily Alert Archives

Understanding Arafat's Motives

Dennis Ross (Foreign Policy) - Every agreement Arafat made was limited and contained nothing he regarded as irrevocable. He was not, in his eyes, required to surrender any claims. Worse, notwithstanding his commitment to renounce violence, he has never relinquished the terror card. During the Oslo peace process, he never prepared his public for compromise. Instead, he led the Palestinians to believe the peace process would produce everything they ever wanted To this day, Arafat has never honestly admitted what was offered to the Palestinians: a deal that would have resulted in a Palestinian state, with territory in over 97 percent of the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem; with Arab East Jerusalem as the capital of that state; with an international presence in place of the Israeli Defense Force in the Jordan Valley; and with the unlimited right of return for Palestinian refugees to their state but not to Israel. I have never met an Arab leader who trusts Arafat or has anything good to say about him in private. Almost all Arab leaders have stories about how he has misled or betrayed them. But no Arab leader is prepared to challenge him. No one but the Palestinians can choose the Palestinian leader. But the rest of the world can choose not to deal with a leader who fails to fulfill obligations. Arafat can control the militants in the Palestinian Authority, but he won’t. From the beginning of the peace process, Arafat made clear he prefers to co-opt, not confront, extremist groups. Arafat never gave unequivocal orders to arrest, much less stop, those who were planning, organizing, recruiting, financing, or implementing terror attacks against Israelis. Dennis Ross was the lead negotiator on the Middle East peace process in the first Bush and both Clinton administrations.
2002-06-19 00:00:00
Full Article